MegaChips lead investor in $10 million round in Sckipio to accelerate G.fast adoption

G.fast silicon pioneer Sckipio used the Intel Capital Global Summit in Palm Desert, CA this week to announce that it raised $50 million U.S. to date, with its latest $10 million round led by Japanese semiconductor company MegaChips. The additional investments will be used to support G.fast rollouts with Tier 1 service providers worldwide, says Sckipio.

The MegaChips investment will reinforce its six-year partnership with the Israeli G.fast chipmaker and accelerate G.fast adoption in Japan and worldwide. Intel Capital, Pitango Venture Partners, Genesis Partners, Gemini Israel Ventures, Amiti Ventures, Aviv Ventures, CIRTech Fund, and Axess Ventures also invested in the $10 million round.

MegaChips says the two silicon vendors "will cooperate in developing new solutions for new markets" as well.

According to a recent Broadbandtrends survey, 80% of broadband operators plan to deploy G.fast technology within their network by the end of 2018 (see "Faster speeds main driver for G.fast deployment: Broadbandtrends").

"G.fast technology is an important technology, especially in multi-dwelling units (MDUs)," said Teresa Mastrangelo, Broadbandtrends founder.

Analysts quoted in two Sckipio press releases last September noted that pressure from competition to deliver gigabit speeds to subscribers in a variety of living situations, including MDUs, helped accelerate G.fast adoption, particularly in the United States (see "Sckipio SCK-23000 chipsets support Gfast Amendment 3 for 2-Gbps transmission").

"Demand for G.fast products is ramping up quickly as consumers and businesses desire affordable, ultra-high-speed broadband solutions, and our partnership with Sckipio helps us drive these solutions to market quickly," said Akira Takata, MegaChips president and CEO. "This joint effort underscores our commitment to help enhance our customers' competitiveness and strengthens our mission in seeking to further expand our business and sustainable growth."

Established in 1990, fabless semiconductor company MegaChips delivers LSIs for improving analog, digital, and MEMS technology, and attests that it was the first fabless semiconductor company in Japan. The company specializes in ASICs and application specific standard products (ASSPs).

"Today's announcement represents an important and exciting step in our efforts to optimize our G.fast solution," said David Baum, Sckipio CEO and co-founder. "Our joint partnership with MegaChips allows us to collaborate on our respective areas of expertise and helps us build on our recent momentum as we further position ourselves as a global leader in the quickly growing G.fast space. MegaChips' investment is a testament to the strength of our brand and the tremendous global opportunity ahead, including access to the Japanese market."

Sckipio partners with over 30 companies worldwide on G.fast, and is an ITU-T standard contributor, designing chipsets to the Amendment 3 specifications of the ITU-T's G.fast, such as the SCK-23000 chipset family, released in September of 2017 (see "Sckipio SCK-23000 chipsets support Gfast Amendment 3 for 2-Gbps transmission").

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